Shameless
self promotion:
The picture below on the left
was taken 01/01/2000 at 1:19 am give or take a few minutes. Happy
New Year!
I had to work that night. So, there
I am at work, enjoying a wild new year's eve. Or not. At any rate, this
is how I looked
at the turn of
the century. And, WHERE I worked is in the picture below
on the right.
8/11/2021--I
had been working at the place described above until the end of 2020.
Now, I am retired. I'm leaving this
bit here just for...historical value.
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Note
4/6/2018: A lot has changed in 18 years. The internet has become a
major part of peoples' lives. Ownership of digital rights has
become a major issue. I've removed
most
of the stuff that
I'd had on my pages originally that I did not create. Also-over the 18
years-I've created a lot of my own material. Plenty to look at
here now.
Note 8/11/2021--and
so here I am, dumping a lot of the text and links on this page. Some may be on my other pages. What I've been up to. Newest to
oldest.
08/11/2021--- I've been volunteering at Brazos Bend State Park for
about 20 years. Most of the content on my other pages share many of my
observations in Natural History. But I rarely have any
images
of myself while making those observations. So, here are a few pictures
of me over the years at Brazos Bend State Park (for now--I might add
more of me at other places later.)
-
Inside Nature Center 2017
Showing spider to visitors #1 2018(photo by
J.Woodley) Showing spider to visitors #2 2018(photo by J.Woodley) My Alligator Program 2018
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Trail Interpretation 40 Acre lake 2019 (photo M. Dillenbeck)
02/28/2007---In
October of 2006 I took the NAI (National Association for Interpretation) course to become a Certified Interpretive Guide.
I passed, but haven't kept up with it since (didn't do the
"continuing education", although I have always done Nature Interpretation in some form since childhood.) For our final grade,
we had to give a 10-minute program, which was recorded on video.
I recieved a copy of my filmed program
a few days ago. This is it, after a few edits to add the pictures
that I show during the program. The clip has mediocre sound quality, but
I'm still audible.
The file is about 167mb. It's about snapping turtles.
So, if you'd like to see the program, click here(mp4).
(I've since remastered the video a few times, with the last time being today 2/4/2023)
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--------RICK'S
PROGRAM
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December 15, 2005--I've spent a few minutes here, and a few minutes there, trying to fly one of those Spinblade toy helicopters. If you want to see something kind of cool, click on the image below to see the page.
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October
10, 2004The
image below (MASHING!) shows me trying to use the ARGO to flatten more
rice in 40 Acre Lake. Previous visitors to this page may recall that I've
mentioned the
ARGO before (see the entry for May 18, 2003 above) . Since
then I've used the ARGO to flatten vegetation in various places throughout
the park with success most of the time. In fact, this
year I recieved
an award (see AW, SHUCKS, below) from the park for my efforts (THANKS,
FOLKS!).
-
-
MASHING!
AW, SHUCKS
On October
10th, I was able to get on the newly-repaired ARGO (good job, Ronnie!)(and
*I* didn't break it) and make some more progress. This time, by pure chance,
a friend of mine from
long ago (over 20 years ago) happened to be in the
park, and was nice enough to take some pictures and a few video clips with
her camera while I was working. (Thanks, Darla!). So, with
the pictures,
I can show how I use this tool. It isn't easy. The picture below are single
frames from each of the clips. The ARGO seems to be popular among visitors
at the park, so I don't feel
too guilty about using it during the weekend.
They'll usually ask questions about the ARGO, and about what I'm doing.
As those who know me can attest--don't get me started talking about
our
park. The ARGO floats well, but doesn't propel itself well once it
loses traction. If I go too far out, I may not be able to get back in.
If I lose
traction, I may have to throw a grappling hook or
an anchor, catch something,
and then pull myself back until I get traction. If I can, I will tie off
to a stationary object, and then drive into the rice. When I get stuck,
I have to pull myself out. The
ARGO weighs about 1000 lbs. (according to
the user's manual I downloaded, the ARGO Conquest (CB) has a dry weight
of 465kg (1025 lbs)) but fortunately it's floating. Still, it can
be tiring
doing this time after time-especially in 98-plus degree temperatures.
(See PULLING MYSELF OUT, and PULLING BACKWARDS, below.) Also, note
that I'm wearing safety glasses, and
gloves. The rice is a sawgrass, and
can slice the hell out of you (and me). I don't suppose a strand
of that stuff raking across my eyes
would feel very good.
-- -
PULLING
MYSELF OUT
PULLING BACKWARDS
MASHING THE RICE
MAKING ANOTHER PASS
VIDEO
CLIP 1 (984KB flv)
VIDEO CLIP 2 (903KB flv)
VIDEO CLIP 3 (721KB flv)
VIDEO CLIP 4 (404KB flv)
-
AND ANOTHER ONE
VIDEO CLIP 5 (307KB flv)
The
ARGO does have a winch on the front, but it is difficult to use because
it doesn't take up the slack as fast as I need it to. Also, I'd have to
back into the water, and I'd lose the crushing weight
that the engine adds.
The RICKUBISCAM image shows me backing into the rice, with the winch tied
off to a tree. I've reached the edge of traction, and I'm spinning
the treads, but the ARGO
isn't moving any further. I've still got slack
in the winch line.
I discovered
that the ARGO has bad deepwater handling the hard way, in Elm Lake, when
I sat in the middle for about 30 minutes. I slowly spun one way, then the
other, until I was able to slowly
move close enough to the bank to jump
into the water, wade in, and tie the winch line climb back onto the ARGO
and pull myself in. Remember, I work for the park, and I've also studied
alligator
behavior, so I know what I'm doing. DO
NOT
EVER GO INTO THE WATER AT BRAZOS BEND STATE PARK!
During
the time in Elm Lake before I got out, a number of park visitors watched
me.
"Are
you stuck?", they'd ask. I felt dumb enough for being in that situation.
I certainly wasn't going to admit it. So, I said I was...um...testing
it. Yeah! That's the ticket. I was "testing the handling
characteristics
in deep water". Yeah, that's it....
I got
stuck a few more times that day, and finally allowed some park visitors
to help (with very careful warnings and with utmost safety in mind,
of
course). Boy, did they get a kick out of THAT! I found out later that a
number of the visitors couldn't wait to burst into the VC/NC and talk about
how they had to pull a ranger and his
"funny-looking truck" out of the
lake. Oh, yeah. I heard a LOT about that. At least they didn't say "funny
looking ranger in a funny-looking truck".
Anyway,
after I discover how far I can go before I lose traction, I move parallel
to the bank, and flatten what I can without getting stuck. This requires
multiple passes, and I use the treads to tear
the rice stalks (see the
other images above and below). Look at how tall that rice is, especially
in A LONGER PASS, and RUNNING OUT OF TRACTION, below.
I try
to do this when water levels are low. Then, when the water returns, hopefully
it is deep enough to prevent the rice from growing back. When I catch
this just right, the rice stays clear (and
we can see the water) for many
weeks. One of the things I like best about this method is that I'm not
using any herbicide.
----------------------
A
LONGER PASS
RUNNING OUT OF TRACTION
VIDEO
CLIP 6 (1023KB flv)
VIDEO CLIP 7 (678KB flv)
UPDATE
4/6/2018 14 years later, I've added more (larger) pictures and resized
the video clips. I've merged the short clips into 2 bigger clips.
Those clips are: ARGO CLIPS 2004 part 1 mp4 ARGO CLIPS 2004 part 2 mp4
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October
04, 2003About
50 miles south of Houston is the town of Lake Jackson. Among the
many streets in this town is one named "THIS WAY" and another named "THAT
WAY". That just
about says it all, doesn't it (see WHICH WAY?, above).
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WHICH WAY SHOULD I GO?
May
18, 2003
Later, near 2 o'clock, I got some herbicide and an interesting tracked
vehicle which we call the "ARGO". The picture below (ARGONAUT!) me
sitting in it.
Click here to
see a short clip (flv video 378kb)
of
me driving it. The Argo makes an excellent moving platform for cutting
down wild rice.
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TAKING A BREAK
IT'S ME!
ARGONAUT!
May 29,
2003I
just thought I'd surprise some of y'all. The picture above (IT'S
ME) was from part of a 3D model I made. These links should take you
to a couple flv video clips that I made from my
talking head. (rikspike1.flv
687kb; rikspike2.flv 579kb).
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MY BRAIN
The
image, MY BRAIN, above, taken 05/26/2002, shows me preparing to do an alligator
video interpretive program at the park.
Click here to see pictures of some shirts I've designed.
Click here to get back to the welcome page.
All animated gifs on these pages were created
by:Richard Dashnau.
If
you like them, email me and let me know.
If you didn't like them, I don't really care.